NU sells out B1G title game allotment

[TampaWildcat]

Everyone: there are tons of tickets still available on secondary sources like StubHub and VividSeats. If you want to go to the game, go grab 'em.

I wouldn’t quite call it a ton available (besides the upper decks).There are various sections whiteout with zero inventory.

The question is, will there be a ticket dump on the West Division half of the stadium in less than 9 days?

Or is this all we’re going to see what’s available for the secondary market inventory?
Or did fans of OSU and MI buy tickets even on the ‘west’ side back in September, when they went on sale?

 

[BobbCat14]

A PSA: I just bought a pair on Ticketmaster just in case. I didn’t know this beforehand, but you can buy insurance so that if you can’t go, you get a refund.

Seems perfect for those in limbo. Buy something from Ticketmaster. Get the insurance. If you get tickets from NU, you’re out $8 plus a few bucks more of service fees.

 

[villox]

A PSA: I just bought a pair on Ticketmaster just in case. I didn’t know this beforehand, but you can buy insurance so that if you can’t go, you get a refund.

Seems perfect for those in limbo. Buy something from Ticketmaster. Get the insurance. If you get tickets from NU, you’re out $8 plus a few bucks more of service fees.

That is not how Ticketmaster insurance works, unless you want to commit insurance fraud.

 

[BobbCat14]

There is a process. They decided to offer free tickets to students, paid for by a donor. They offered tickets to STHs to be allocated based on priority points. That the student tickets came from a different allocation was NU's call, just as it would have been if they came out of the 10k allotment.

There was no "predetermined process." The issue is that the process is different from what you think/thought it was.

I can’t help but laugh at this.

“There is no existing process!

Oh wait, yes, there is a process.

There’s just no predetermined process.”

With hairsplitting like that, I presume you are totally bald by now?

 

[gocatsgo2003]

I can’t help but laugh at this.

“There is no existing process!

Oh wait, yes, there is a process.

There’s just no predetermined process.”

With hairsplitting like that, I presume you are totally bald by now?

It's not that hard. NU established a process for allocating tickets to the B1G title game, which didn't heretofore exist. There was no "predetermined plan" for which you signed up as a STH or Purple Points guy.

At the end of the day, the administration decided to prioritize students over STHs in the hypothetical situation that started this entire exchange. Far as I can tell, you and Turk are literally the only ones that have a problem with that.

 

[BobbCat14]

It's not that hard. NU established a process for allocating tickets to the B1G title game, which didn't heretofore exist. There was no "predetermined plan" for which you signed up as a STH or Purple Points guy.

At the end of the day, the administration decided to prioritize students over STHs in the hypothetical situation that started this entire exchange. Far as I can tell, you and Turk are literally the only ones that have a problem with that.

So it wasn’t predetermined until they established a process, thereby determining it? LOL! Are you performing at Zanies tonight?

 

[Turk]

You state that you have held season tickets for 20 years, donated, and have bball tix. You should have had your order fulfilled. I have had fball season tix for 22 years, donated to the amount necessary for parking passes, and have had b-ball for 10 years. My order was filled completely. Your request should have been filled and we would not have your whining.

You and Villox are completely missing Bob's point. And for the record, I am not Bob.

There were many loyal fans who decided to allow a fan who had more priority points to order tickets for them in hopes of getting more desirable seats. In fact, this also happened to me. In my case, I am in the middle part of tier one. Thus, I get the best tickets. So, instead of ordering off of stubhub or elsewhere, Floridalum and another poster (Not Bob) decided to have me purchase the block of 3 tickets. I mean someone has to purchase the tickets, right?

So, since we have always been told that the process of determining the 'place in line' is based off of one's priority points, we confidently assumed that my request for 3 tickets would be granted. But, as it turns out, my priority points didn't matter as first year season ticket holders, including 2 diehard Michigan fans, will get the same amount of tickets as me. I know because they already said they both got granted 2 seats. So I already know that 4 Michigan fans will be sitting in our section.

You and many others are discounting the significance of longtime fans who gave thousands. Now, all of these Michigan and Notre Dame fans who gobbled up season tickets are coming back to haunt us by purchasing OUR ALLOTMENT.

So, now, Bob and other loyalist will have to buy on stubhub and sit in non NU sections while we may have thousands of the Maize and Blue sitting in our sections since the athletic department made a decision to grant 'parity' to first year season ticket holders. Sad.

 

[BobbCat14]

That is not how Ticketmaster insurance works, unless you want to commit insurance fraud.

You’re right. It’s basically a scam. I just canceled it. They give you 10 days to cancel.

 

[gocatsgo2003]

So it wasn’t predetermined until they established a process, thereby determining it? LOL! Are you performing at Zanies tonight?

And I'm the one who's supposedly pushing arguments on you?

I'm done. Been fun. Have fun trying to scam TicketMaster.

 

[willycat]

You and Villox are completely missing Bob's point. And for the record, I am not Bob.

There were many loyal fans who decided to allow a fan who had more priority points to order tickets for them in hopes of getting more desirable seats. In fact, this also happened to me. In my case, I am in the middle part of tier one. Thus, I get the best tickets. So, instead of ordering off of stubhub or elsewhere, Floridalum and another poster (Not Bob) decided to have me purchase the block of 3 tickets. I mean someone has to purchase the tickets, right?

So, since we have always been told that the process of determining the 'place in line' is based off of one's priority points, we confidently assumed that my request for 3 tickets would be granted. But, as it turns out, my priority points didn't matter as first year season ticket holders, including 2 diehard Michigan fans, will get the same amount of tickets as me. I know because they already said they both got granted 2 seats. So I already know that 4 Michigan fans will be sitting in whenour section.

You and many others are discounting the significance of longtime fans who gave thousands. Now, all of these Michigan and Notre Dame fans who gobbled up season tickets are coming back to haunt us by purchasing OUR ALLOTMENT.

So, now, Bob and other loyalist will have to buy on stubhub and sit in non NU sections while we may have thousands of the Maize and Blue sitting in our sections since the athletic department made a decision to grant 'parity' to first year season ticket holders. Sad.

That is exactly what they did when kicking out long time parking lot fans and allowing new , deep pocket "fans". Still a big YES to the students! To bad 8,000 aren't going.

 

[villox]

You and Villox are completely missing Bob's point. And for the record, I am not Bob.

There were many loyal fans who decided to allow a fan who had more priority points to order tickets for them in hopes of getting more desirable seats. In fact, this also happened to me. In my case, I am in the middle part of tier one. Thus, I get the best tickets. So, instead of ordering off of stubhub or elsewhere, Floridalum and another poster (Not Bob) decided to have me purchase the block of 3 tickets. I mean someone has to purchase the tickets, right?

So, since we have always been told that the process of determining the 'place in line' is based off of one's priority points, we confidently assumed that my request for 3 tickets would be granted. But, as it turns out, my priority points didn't matter as first year season ticket holders, including 2 diehard Michigan fans, will get the same amount of tickets as me. I know because they already said they both got granted 2 seats. So I already know that 4 Michigan fans will be sitting in our section.

You and many others are discounting the significance of longtime fans who gave thousands. Now, all of these Michigan and Notre Dame fans who gobbled up season tickets are coming back to haunt us by purchasing OUR ALLOTMENT.

So, now, Bob and other loyalist will have to buy on stubhub and sit in non NU sections while we may have thousands of the Maize and Blue sitting in our sections since the athletic department made a decision to grant 'parity' to first year season ticket holders. Sad.

Your complaint about the purple point assignments among season ticket holders is completely valid, and I said as much. It really is crap that Michigan fans can buy in our allotment without having done anything but buying one season's worth of tickets. However, complaining about students being given tickets is not valid. They are a separate part of this process and always would have been whether they were paying for it or a donor did.

 

[BobbCat14]

You and Villox are completely missing Bob's point. And for the record, I am not Bob.

There were many loyal fans who decided to allow a fan who had more priority points to order tickets for them in hopes of getting more desirable seats. In fact, this also happened to me. In my case, I am in the middle part of tier one. Thus, I get the best tickets. So, instead of ordering off of stubhub or elsewhere, Floridalum and another poster (Not Bob) decided to have me purchase the block of 3 tickets. I mean someone has to purchase the tickets, right?

So, since we have always been told that the process of determining the 'place in line' is based off of one's priority points, we confidently assumed that my request for 3 tickets would be granted. But, as it turns out, my priority points didn't matter as first year season ticket holders, including 2 diehard Michigan fans, will get the same amount of tickets as me. I know because they already said they both got granted 2 seats. So I already know that 4 Michigan fans will be sitting in our section.

You and many others are discounting the significance of longtime fans who gave thousands. Now, all of these Michigan and Notre Dame fans who gobbled up season tickets are coming back to haunt us by purchasing OUR ALLOTMENT.

So, now, Bob and other loyalist will have to buy on stubhub and sit in non NU sections while we may have thousands of the Maize and Blue sitting in our sections since the athletic department made a decision to grant 'parity' to first year season ticket holders. Sad.

Turk, you’re right. And it appears GCG was right (although not for the reason he thinks he was).

There apparently was no thoughtful process. If out of state first year STH with basically zero Purple Points got 2 tickets each along with all the long time supporters with tons of Purple Points, it does not take a genius to know what’s going on there.

UM and ND fans who were smart enough to buy NU season tickets were also smart enough to take their 2 BT Title game tickets.

It’s a near certainty that our Purple NU section will be polluted with navy and piss. Or scarlet and gray if UM loses and all those fans dump on stubhub.

So it seems there really was no process after all.

 

[villox]

Turk, you’re right. And it appears GCG was right (although not for the reason he thinks he was).

There apparently was no thoughtful process. If out of state first year STH with basically zero Purple Points got 2 tickets each along with all the long time supporters with tons of Purple Points, it does not take a genius to know what’s going on there.

UM and ND fans who were smart enough to buy NU season tickets were also smart enough to take their 2 BT Title game tickets.

It’s a near certainty that our Purple NU section will be polluted with navy and piss. Or scarlet and gray of UM loses and all those fans dump on stubhub.

So it seems there really was no process after all.

Here is what I think happened:

- NU, trying to capitalize on the excitement/momentum of clinching the West and wanting to grant their fans as much time to plan as possible, raced to get a ticket site up and running (My original confirmation email said "thank you for renewing your season tickets" - clearly it was not planned out well in advance)

- They stated that they would prioritize by purple points, causing many of us to say "alright who in my group do I know has the most points let's get all 4 from them"

- In an unrelated development, a donor stepped forward to offer to buy every student a ticket and to pay for buses. Huge PR win. Given there was a different pricing level on student tickets originally, I think it was a separate allotment. Or at the very least already factored into the allotment (after all students most likely don't have any points or season tickets so they were always going to be prioritized differently)

- NU quickly realized they got way more requests for 4 tickets than they expected. Someone did the math and realized that the number of STHs who requested tickets was less than 5,000, meaning they could give everyone who requested tickets 2 of them so at least everyone gets something. So they figured they'd commit to everyone getting 2, and whatever was left over will be prioritized by points.

Unfortunately this method has the side effect of leaving some moderate donors and long-time STH with only 2 tickets when they wanted 4, and other one-off STH also getting 2. I put in for four because I've got about 900 points, expecting them all to be filled, and the person who I sit with who has zero points is also getting two.

I think NU is racing to deal with unprecedented demand and indeed did not have a plan in place for what they would do if the demand far exceeded supply, nor consideration for how their statement of "prioritized by points" would be taken by some of us to request 4 by one person instead of 2 by 2.

 

[BobbCat14]

Here is what I think happened:

- NU, trying to capitalize on the excitement/momentum of clinching the West and wanting to grant their fans as much time to plan as possible, raced to get a ticket site up and running (My original confirmation email said "thank you for renewing your season tickets" - clearly it was not planned out well in advance)

- They stated that they would prioritize by purple points, causing many of us to say "alright who in my group do I know has the most points let's get all 4 from them"

- In an unrelated development, a donor stepped forward to offer to buy every student a ticket and to pay for buses. Huge PR win. Given there was a different pricing level on student tickets originally, I think it was a separate allotment. Or at the very least already factored into the allotment (after all students most likely don't have any points or season tickets so they were always going to be prioritized differently)

- NU quickly realized they got way more requests for 4 tickets than they expected. Someone did the math and realized that the number of STHs who requested tickets was less than 5,000, meaning they could give everyone who requested tickets 2 of them so at least everyone gets something. So they figured they'd commit to everyone getting 2, and whatever was left over will be prioritized by points.

Unfortunately this method has the side effect of leaving some moderate donors and long-time STH with only 2 tickets when they wanted 4, and other one-off STH also getting 2. I put in for four because I've got about 900 points, expecting them all to be filled, and the person who I sit with who has zero points is also getting two.

I think NU is racing to deal with unprecedented demand and indeed did not have a plan in place for what they would do if the demand far exceeded supply, nor consideration for how their statement of "prioritized by points" would be taken by some of us to request 4 by one person instead of 2 by 2.

I don’t disagree with any of that. I just don’t think the 3400 played into any of it. Those are going to be their own section of end zone-ish seats and will have nothing to do with the main NU allocation.

The Main NU section is going to be littered with navy and piss or scarlet and gray as a result of this.

 

[NUAlum2010]

You and Villox are completely missing Bob's point. And for the record, I am not Bob.

There were many loyal fans who decided to allow a fan who had more priority points to order tickets for them in hopes of getting more desirable seats. In fact, this also happened to me. In my case, I am in the middle part of tier one. Thus, I get the best tickets. So, instead of ordering off of stubhub or elsewhere, Floridalum and another poster (Not Bob) decided to have me purchase the block of 3 tickets. I mean someone has to purchase the tickets, right?

So, since we have always been told that the process of determining the 'place in line' is based off of one's priority points, we confidently assumed that my request for 3 tickets would be granted. But, as it turns out, my priority points didn't matter as first year season ticket holders, including 2 diehard Michigan fans, will get the same amount of tickets as me. I know because they already said they both got granted 2 seats. So I already know that 4 Michigan fans will be sitting in our section.

You and many others are discounting the significance of longtime fans who gave thousands. Now, all of these Michigan and Notre Dame fans who gobbled up season tickets are coming back to haunt us by purchasing OUR ALLOTMENT.

So, now, Bob and other loyalist will have to buy on stubhub and sit in non NU sections while we may have thousands of the Maize and Blue sitting in our sections since the athletic department made a decision to grant 'parity' to first year season ticket holders. Sad.

Unlike the "why do students get prioritized over me?" argument (I have absolutely zero issues with that), I think there's actually merit to this point.

Selfishly, this screwed me over. I have a large group going to the game. Recognizing that we weren't going to be able to get 15 seats together through NU, we figured we could at least get 4, 4, 4 and 3 through the request process. Unfortunately, NU is probably going to hand us 2, 2, 2 and 2. It's not the end of the world, but I would've much rather NU give the entirety of the each person's order request based on priority points knowing there was already a max of 4 per request. If that meant that all of us (as STHers) didn't get a single ticket, fine. I'm not sure why they decided they would first give everyone 2 and then try to fulfill the rest of the orders based on priority.

Simply put, I'd rather have been given 0 tickets than 2 in this situation. I wouldn't have to pay for the 2 and I could go find 4+ together on the secondary market. I have to imagine there will be a decent amount of people in this situation (particularly any families that requested tickets through NU). If so, you may see some sets of 2 in NU sections on the secondary markets.

 

[rwhitney014]

Unlike the "why do students get prioritized over me?" argument (I have absolutely zero issues with that), I think there's actually merit to this point.

Selfishly, this screwed me over. I have a large group going to the game. Recognizing that we weren't going to be able to get 15 seats together through NU, we figured we could at least get 4, 4, 4 and 3 through the request process. Unfortunately, NU is probably going to hand us 2, 2, 2 and 2. It's not the end of the world, but I would've much rather NU give the entirety of the each person's order request based on priority points knowing there was already a max of 4 per request. If that meant that all of us (as STHers) didn't get a single ticket, fine. I'm not sure why they decided they would first give everyone 2 and then try to fulfill the rest of the orders based on priority.

Simply put, I'd rather have been given 0 tickets than 2 in this situation. I wouldn't have to pay for the 2 and I could go find 4+ together on the secondary market. I have to imagine there will be a decent amount of people in this situation (particularly any families that requested tickets through NU). If so, you may see some sets of 2 in NU sections on the secondary markets.

This. Because, of course, there are no refunds, except for the refunds they're gonna have to hand out for orders not fulfilled.

 

[Smolmania]

I've just spent the last 40 minutes reading the six pages of this thread. Why, you might ask? I have no idea. 2 questions come to mind:

Why would a Notre Dame fan want to purchase tickets to the B1G Championship game?

Is there any Northwestern fan, season ticket holder or not (for the record I've had mine since 1979), who could not get tickets either through Ticketmaster or the secondary market?

 

[zeek55]

I've just spent the last 40 minutes reading the six pages of this thread. Why, you might ask? I have no idea. 2 questions come to mind:

Why would a Notre Dame fan want to purchase tickets to the B1G Championship game?

Is there any Northwestern fan, season ticket holder or not (for the record I've had mine since 1979), who could not get tickets either through Ticketmaster or the secondary market?

Good point on ND fans.

As far as NU fans go, reality is people should be buying up as many tickets as they need before the Ohio State/Michigan game ends.

Because once that game ends, if Michigan wins, this will likely be the hottest Big Ten championship game ticket to date. We're likely to see ticket prices skyrocket.

This is not the game to wait to buy tickets for on the secondary market in my opinion.

 

[Turk]

Your complaint about the purple point assignments among season ticket holders is completely valid, and I said as much. It really is crap that Michigan fans can buy in our allotment without having done anything but buying one season's worth of tickets. However, complaining about students being given tickets is not valid. They are a separate part of this process and always would have been whether they were paying for it or a donor did.

I sent an email to Phillips explaining my thoughts and how this process necessarily may reward Michigan fans who are one year season ticket holders at Northwestern. What's done is done and mistakes happen but there is a real chance we can go to the Rose Bowl and I'm hoping he listened to my thoughts.

Admittedly, the student issues were really a non issue after more information came to light.

 

[Turk]

Unlike the "why do students get prioritized over me?" argument (I have absolutely zero issues with that), I think there's actually merit to this point.

Selfishly, this screwed me over. I have a large group going to the game. Recognizing that we weren't going to be able to get 15 seats together through NU, we figured we could at least get 4, 4, 4 and 3 through the request process. Unfortunately, NU is probably going to hand us 2, 2, 2 and 2. It's not the end of the world, but I would've much rather NU give the entirety of the each person's order request based on priority points knowing there was already a max of 4 per request. If that meant that all of us (as STHers) didn't get a single ticket, fine. I'm not sure why they decided they would first give everyone 2 and then try to fulfill the rest of the orders based on priority.

Simply put, I'd rather have been given 0 tickets than 2 in this situation. I wouldn't have to pay for the 2 and I could go find 4+ together on the secondary market. I have to imagine there will be a decent amount of people in this situation (particularly any families that requested tickets through NU). If so, you may see some sets of 2 in NU sections on the secondary markets.

I still may get my requested '3' tickets. I'm in Tier 1, middle of the pack. I gave a lot of bucks. If I don't then I would have rather had zero. Then the 3 of us could have simply bought tickets the day of the game and sat together. A serious inconvenience. Not sure who made this decision but I think it can be improved upon if we do this again for Rose Bowl tickets.

 

[BobbCat14]

I've just spent the last 40 minutes reading the six pages of this thread. Why, you might ask? I have no idea. 2 questions come to mind:

Why would a Notre Dame fan want to purchase tickets to the B1G Championship game?

Is there any Northwestern fan, season ticket holder or not (for the record I've had mine since 1979), who could not get tickets either through Ticketmaster or the secondary market?

They wouldn’t. They’d sell the tic on Stubhub.

 

[catfans5]

You and Villox are completely missing Bob's point. And for the record, I am not Bob.

There were many loyal fans who decided to allow a fan who had more priority points to order tickets for them in hopes of getting more desirable seats. In fact, this also happened to me. In my case, I am in the middle part of tier one. Thus, I get the best tickets. So, instead of ordering off of stubhub or elsewhere, Floridalum and another poster (Not Bob) decided to have me purchase the block of 3 tickets. I mean someone has to purchase the tickets, right?

So, since we have always been told that the process of determining the 'place in line' is based off of one's priority points, we confidently assumed that my request for 3 tickets would be granted. But, as it turns out, my priority points didn't matter as first year season ticket holders, including 2 diehard Michigan fans, will get the same amount of tickets as me. I know because they already said they both got granted 2 seats. So I already know that 4 Michigan fans will be sitting in our section.

You and many others are discounting the significance of longtime fans who gave thousands. Now, all of these Michigan and Notre Dame fans who gobbled up season tickets are coming back to haunt us by purchasing OUR ALLOTMENT.

So, now, Bob and other loyalist will have to buy on stubhub and sit in non NU sections while we may have thousands of the Maize and Blue sitting in our sections since the athletic department made a decision to grant 'parity' to first year season ticket holders. Sad.

You and Bob gambled and your gambled failed. Others gambled and won. We tried a similar gamble for b-ball tix Sorry that it happened, but it was a good process.

 

[SimpsonElmwood]

I've just spent the last 40 minutes reading the six pages of this thread. Why, you might ask? I have no idea. 2 questions come to mind:

Why would a Notre Dame fan want to purchase tickets to the B1G Championship game?

Is there any Northwestern fan, season ticket holder or not (for the record I've had mine since 1979), who could not get tickets either through Ticketmaster or the secondary market?

It's like looking at the sun. Sometimes you just have to do it, especially on a Friday afternoon.

On the ND fan question - the answer is, no ND fan would ever do it. By buying Northwestern season tickets they are guaranteeing that they'd see their team in action. They did so at a known maximum price (i.e., the season ticket cost) with some possibility of reduction in that cost (selling the tickets to the other games). With NU games against Wisconsin, Nebraska and Michigan there was potential to erase much of the cost of the season ticket.

In contrast, that same person has an option to buy a ticket at the B1G Championship game with Northwestern playing an unknown opponent. A market for the tickets is already established and the game is not sold out and the secondary market is soft. You have the option to buy tickets for that game in a section that is not yet determined. You have no tenure as a season ticket holder so you're likely to get the dregs. Your likely profit is almost certainly negative. The intersection of (ND fans) and (NU season ticket holders) and (B1G Championship ticket holders) is a null set.

The idea that some posters have that insurgent fans from other teams and benevolent alums are mucking up the process for the rest of us is absurd. Yet we all can't help but read this thread and comment. How else would we spend Friday afternoon?

 

[BobbCat14]

You and Bob gambled and your gambled failed. Others gambled and won. We tried a similar gamble for b-ball tix Sorry that it happened, but it was a good process.

Again, for the dozenth? time, nobody is arguing bad process around the 3400 tickets, which would have reduced the number of tickets available. Because it didn’t happen. That’s the one that involves the gamble because it was based on a belief that 4 would be available. Fine. We’ve said as much

This other issue is different. This is a matter of inequity in priority, not reduction of numbers. Two different things.

 

[StreamCat]

Again, for the dozenth? time, nobody is arguing bad process around the 3400 tickets, which would have reduced the number of tickets available. Because it didn’t happen. That’s the one that involves the gamble because it was based on a belief that 4 would be available. Fine. We’ve said as much

This other issue is different. This is a matter of inequity in priority, not reduction of numbers. Two different things.

I wish you were on the team, BobbCat. You never give up. Kudos!

 

[catfans5]

Again, for the dozenth? time, nobody is arguing bad process around the 3400 tickets, which would have reduced the number of tickets available. Because it didn’t happen. That’s the one that involves the gamble because it was based on a belief that 4 would be available. Fine. We’ve said as much

This other issue is different. This is a matter of inequity in priority, not reduction of numbers. Two different things.

IMO, and referencing Villox, the mistake by NU was allowing people to order more season tickets than they may have. It made/makes no sense to let someone who has had 2 season tickets for 10 years to now magically have the right to purchase 4 tickets. How fair is to limit someone who has 6 season tickets for 10 years to only 4 tickets? Unfortunately, one way or the other, someone will perceive that they are getting screwed.

 

[Bwm57]

They wouldn’t. They’d sell the tic on Stubhub.

Bobbb, you do realize that Stubhub charges a minimum 15% sellers fee.
The NU fee on an $85 ticket was $11 which is roughly another 13% of the face value.
So those darn, get rich quick scheming, ND fans would need to sell the tickets at a minimum of 28% above face value just to break even.
No wonder those guys all think they are so smart!